Luckily I kept notes on this... the answer is not very if you're
snarfing stuff over the wire!
: <wingo> paroneayea: relatedly,
: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guile.git/commit/?id=e68dd5c601ef7975507d4118bcc2ad334b0450b2
: <wingo> i suppose that doc update doesn't touch security at all tho... [16:54]
: <paroneayea> wingo: ah nice
: <paroneayea> wingo: yeah... srfi-10 seems to be one way where (read) can get
: scary [16:55]
: <paroneayea> wingo: really makes me wish I could specify a scope where I
: *know* how read behaves
: <wingo> yeah i know what you mean [16:56]
: <paroneayea> maybe (scoped-read) (scoped-write)
: <paroneayea> or even a module that provides (read) and (write), splatting over
: the default ones unless you namespace it :) [16:57]
: <wingo> nah, i think a port option or something is what you want
: <paroneayea> a port option would be fine
: <dsmith-work> There is also read-hash-extend (I think srfi-10 uses that)
: <paroneayea> wingo: I saw that there was some mention of being able to control
: how read works in the port... but it looked like the *data* read
: by read was able to change read behavior [16:58]
: <paroneayea> which is actually even more worrying!
: <wingo> how could the data change the behavior? only via #.
: <wingo> which is off by default
: <paroneayea> ah
: <paroneayea> okay whew
: <wingo> no one in their right mind turns that one on :)
: <wingo> there's also #!r6rs i think... [16:59]
: <paroneayea> wingo: I think this paragraph is not clear to me:
: <wingo> that changes some parameters, but they are static parameters, and
: maybe only in certain situations
: <wingo> anyway not like a danger or anything
: <paroneayea> https://dpaste.de/Pdor
: <paroneayea> wingo: nothing in that section mentions how # gets turned on to
: enable that [17:00]
: <paroneayea> it sounds like *any* port that runs across #!fold-case will start
: doing that to me..
: <paroneayea> but maybe I'm just not understandgin while reading [17:01]
: <wingo> no, that's correct
: <wingo> maybe it's a problem? dunno
: <paroneayea> it doesn't seem like those are dangerous options
: <wingo> when #!fold-case is in a file that's certainly what you want
: <wingo> if an attacker can inject #!fold-case in some thing... [17:02]
: <wingo> it's an interesting idea, i hadn't thought about that
: <wingo> mark_weaver will like that one :)
: <paroneayea> well, the question is whether (read) is "safe" when you get
: arbitrary incoming data [17:03]
: <wingo> we probably need to have a port option to disable these things i guess
: <paroneayea> in the case I'm in, a signature is checked before it ever hits
: (read), but could read/write be as safe as json?
: <wingo> paroneayea: what does "safe" mean in this context? threat model
: missing :)
: <paroneayea> wingo: think "reading data off a REST style API"
: <wingo> and? [17:04]
: <davexunit> arbitrary code execution
: <paroneayea> yes
: <paroneayea> eg, you're probably at no risk parsing that data through json
: <wingo> so
: <davexunit> which I don't think is possible
: <paroneayea> every rest api in the world does that
: <wingo> arbitrary code execution is only possible via read-eval (the #. thing)
: <wingo> that should be off globally.
: <paroneayea> davexunit: what about if srfi-10 is on? :)
: <wingo> you can get some code execution via srfi-10 or read-hash-extend
: <wingo> so you have to know whether the extensions that are active in your
: program are safe against your threat model [17:05]
: <wingo> for example
: <wingo> a syntax extension which turns #'foo into (syntax foo)
: <wingo> there's no danger there.
: <paroneayea> sure
: <paroneayea> though say I decided "to hell with json, my REST API is going to
: use sexps! Wheee!" [17:06]
: <paroneayea> and then I import a module that itself imports srfi-10
: <paroneayea> and I had no idea
: <paroneayea> and bam, code execution seems possible
: <wingo> yeah, not full #. code execution but yes [17:07]
: <wingo> but that same argument applies if a module enables #.
: <paroneayea> wingo: right
: <wingo> so yeah, it's a property of your whole program
: <paroneayea> wingo: basically I'm saying, I don't want either of those to
: happen
: <paroneayea> because I don't know much about my libraries, necessarily
: <wingo> what code can be run by `read' [17:08]
: <wingo> yeah i know what you mean. i solve this by being an asshole and never
: using other people's code :/ not a great solution
: <dsmith-work> paroneayea: You could purge srfi-10 from systems you control?
: <dsmith-work> If some module needs it, too bad. [17:09]
: <wingo> if you want to control the property globally, yeah like dsmith-work
: says we can add global kill switches
: <davexunit> how about a dumb-read procedure?
: <davexunit> no reader macros allowed :)
: <wingo> we could also add per-port kill switches but that's less convenient in
: some ways
: <wingo> heh, at that point just write your own `read' :)
: <wingo> there's also some memory dangers [17:10]
: <wingo> e.g. reading 10e10000
: <wingo> rather #e10e1000
: <wingo> anyway
: <davexunit> I don't know read is implemented, so I don't know how feasible it
: would be to say "don't use any reader macros for this read call"
: <dsmith-work> What about malformed sexpr?
: <dsmith-work> Like reading "(((foo" [17:11]
: <wingo> read is implemented in c right now. for options it's better to attach
: them to the port.
: <paroneayea> wingo: wow #e10e1000 is interesting
: <paroneayea> I would have never thought of that. [17:12]
: <wingo> irritating isn't it :)
: <paroneayea> so, this conversation is making me feel like: don't use read for
: any data that comes over the wire that you don't really trust
: <paroneayea> or use a safer one you write yourself :) [17:13]
: <paroneayea> so, it's still safe with the signed sessions, because an attacker
: would need your key to get you to do something evil with read
: [17:14]
: <paroneayea> but #e10e10000, srfi-10, and #. are all worrying possible attacks
: against using vanilla read for much data heading over the wire
: that you don't control [17:15]
: <wingo> i think there is another attack, which is ((((((((((((((((((((((((((
: [17:16]
: <wingo> keep on going
: <wingo> the c stack keeps recursing, eventually segfault i think
: <paroneayea> wingo: interesting [17:17]
: <paroneayea> wingq: I guess the json parser I'm using is also semi-vulnerable
: to that, but it wouldn't be in C
: <paroneayea> so probably there's more safety
: <paroneayea> wouldn't segfault, anyway
: * wingo currently trying the ((((( attack
: <wingo> do you have a limit on your message size? [17:18]
: <paroneayea> wingo: for this particular case (sessions), the limit is 4kb, but
: I'm not worried about that. Probably for the json-ld stuff
: coming over the wire... I haven't set any limit :) [17:19]
: <wingo> lol
: <wingo> scheme@(guile-user)> (call-with-input-string (make-string 200000 #\()
: read)
: <wingo> Segmentation fault
: <paroneayea> whee :)
: <wingo> erryting turribul [17:20]
: * paroneayea saves this conversation in eir notes.org file :)
: <wingo> this is "just" a bug [17:21]
: <dsmith-work> IS there a limit to cookie size?
: <dsmith-work> paroneayea: or whatever you are planning on read'ing
: <paroneayea> dsmith-work: yes, cookies are limited to 4kb [17:22]
: <paroneayea> according to the HTTP spec
: <paroneayea> well, whether guile does that
: <paroneayea> I haven't checked yet
: <paroneayea> (or rather, headers are)
: <dsmith-work> scheme@(guile-user)> (call-with-input-string (make-string 4096
: #\() read)
: <dsmith-work> ERROR: In procedure read:
: <dsmith-work> ERROR: In procedure scm_i_lreadparen: #<unknown port>:1:4097:
: end of file
: <paroneayea> or if not according to the http spec, according to browser
: conventions :)
: <paroneayea>
: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/640938/what-is-the-maximum-size-of-a-web-browsers-cookies-key
: <dsmith-work> So in your case, at least you won't segfault.
: <paroneayea> not sure if this is from any spec, or just convention
: <paroneayea> dsmith-work: in my particular case, for sessions, it's still not
: risky because again, someone would need to forge the key...
: [17:24]
: <paroneayea> but yeah
: <paroneayea> I'm still interested in understanding in general how "safe" read
: / write are in various scenarios
Post by Amirouche Boubekki(define-public (scm->string scm)
(call-with-output-string
(lambda (port)
(write scm port))))
(define-public (string->scm string)
(call-with-input-string string read))
Is it safe to pass to this procedures input from third parties?
TIA!